COUNTRY FOCUS
In sub-Saharan
Africa, the
education budget
accounts for
about 5% of the
gross domestic
product, which
is second only to
North America
and Europe at
5.3%.
additional teachers. Public spending
on education has been growing in
Africa and policy makers have already
been spending a substantial amount
of national resources on education.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the education
budget accounts for about 5% of
40
INTELLIGENTCIO
the gross domestic product, which
is second only to North America and
Europe at 5.3%.
Neither domestic resources nor donor
funding are likely to increase rapidly
enough over the coming years,
therefore policy makers need to devise
alternative solutions to improve access
to and quality of education. Alternative
learning options that harness new
technologies must be explored
to promote training or learning
opportunities on a lifelong basis to
all individuals and, more importantly,
to those traditionally under-served or
marginalised groups – girls and special
needs groups or disabled people.
Under the right conditions, the Internet
offers an opportunity for addressing
the learning needs of diverse groups
in Africa, including the bulk of learners
that are currently out of school, in
a scalable and cost-effective way. A
blended learning environment that
leverages the Internet can potentially
help connect education to work, improve
the skills that allow youth to access
employment, empower lifelong learners
and importantly, support women, girls
and disabled people to participate in
learning without space, time and other
cultural and social barriers.
In Africa today, using the Internet for
learning is a very real possibility. More
than a quarter of the African population
has access to the Internet, the majority
of which is young people and potential
lifelong learners. There were 147 million
Facebook users in Africa in June 2016,
that is 43% of Internet users. However,
such access to the Internet and heavy
use of social media has not been
harnessed systematically to advance
education and learning at individual
and institutional levels.
Excerpted from Internet for Education
in Africa by Internet Society, released
in May 2017.
www.intelligentcio.com